The S4 Zoom sports a 16 MP camera with, you guessed it, optical zoom capabilities. These are up to 10x, and can be called with either the lens zoom ring or the volume rocker while in the camera app.

The zoom ring also serves another function called Camera Mode Shortcut – outside of the camera app you can just turn it a little in any direction, and a jog dial with the most used shooting modes appears, so you can quickly select the one suitable for the occasion and take a shot. The ring rotates pretty often while you are handling the phone with one hand, though, as there is just no easy way to place your fingers on the back without touching it even a little.

Samsung states that the CMOS sensor is 1.8x bigger than your typical smartphone sensor, and is backside-illuminated, and these should mean better photography with less light around in principle. To further aid low-light capabilities, Samsung graced the handset with a Xenon flash and an optical image stabilization mechanism. OIS compensates for your hands' movements by shifting the module in the opposite direction numerous times per second. This allows for the sensor to be much more stable, hence slower shutter speeds can be used in low-light conditions without the typical blur, just like on the Nokia Lumia flagships and the HTC One. The OIS system is also useful while zoomed in, where each little movement can throw the whole frame off the tracks.

The camera app offers four general shooting modes – automatic, manual, smart and My Mode – which can be accessed on the right in the interface. The manual mode, called Expert, lets you adjust every little aspect of your picture-taking – from up to 3200 ISO through shutter speeds up to 16s, to adjusting the color “sense” of the frame and numerous white balance settings. There are two aperture options – f/3.1 and f/8.8 - which is not as good as dedicated camera, but still more than other smartphones, where this aspect is fixed at one value.

The camera app gives you multiple shooting modes and settings

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Smart regime has 26 presets

The Smart regime has no less than 26 preset modes, ranging from the usual Rich Tone (HDR), Panorama and Best Face, to more exotic ones like Golf, Baby and Food. Golf takes a number of pics in quick succession to catch that perfect swing, Baby issues a funny sound pre-shot to attract your toddler's attention, and Food just makes for that perfect Instagram posting of your breakfast, you know you want it. Smart Suggest is also an interesting one here, as it offers you to choose the best suited presets when you half-press the shutter key or touch to focus.

My Mode you can populate with shortcuts to your preferred presets, or the phone picks for you from the ones you are using the most. A number of color effects evoked from the bottom round up the rich camera app functions.

We are supplying the pictures themselves for you below, but bear in mind that this is a pre-release version of the camera algorithms, so not everything is what's cracked up to be, and we'll judge in the retail unit.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Sample photos

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6. Macro mode

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11. Macro mode

12. Panorama

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16. Landscape mode

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18. 5x zoom

19. 10x zoom

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24. Auto no flash

25. Auto with flash

26. Night mode

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31. Medium light

32. Low light

33. Darkness

Video is recorded in 1080p with 30fps, with good detail and saturated colors at first blush, but again, we'll pass a verdict when the final software is on the phone. You can use the optical zoom while shooting video, but there is an option in the settings you have to check, so as the phone weeds out the zoom motor noise. Another option lets it cut the piercing wind noise that often invades the mics outside.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Sample Video:

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Night time Sample Video:

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Indoor Sample Video:

Multimedia

The gallery has the usual split-view layout and pinch-to-rearrange abilities, and it also sports a rich photo editing power built directly in the interface. It lets you resize, crop, paint, add text and effects over the photos, as well as enhance them automatically.

The music player is the tried stock TouchWiz one that offers a number of sound modes and equalizer presets built in. Despite the chunky phone body, the loudspeaker is a relatively wimpy affair of average quality, just like on your typical smartphone.

Gallery and music player

Video playback is spotless

Video playback is spotless, with the phone running all popular formats, including DivX/Xvid and MKV, up to 1080p resolution.

Yes they should. Problem is that they DON'T have any design team. Havent you heard? Since 2007 Shamesung hired only industrial spies and those who are familiar with photoshop and can edit other OEM designs.

Its odd that there are so many comments about how a camera looks (which is a matter of opinion) rather than how well it works. I doubt anyone will look at a Cannon and comment "that is ugly." Has anyone ever discussed how beautiful the design of a camera is or do they discuss how beautiful the photos are? Its a camera with android functionality. I guess if you're one of the 15 people in world concerned with how your camera looks, this isn't for you.

I don't like it. Too much design compromise for camera usage that camera phone experience is ruined. The Nokia N8 and 808 manages to be the best in class without too much sacrifice with the phone side(I wished that these two run on Android and it will be perfect.).

Sammy is playing game of one upmanship... Trying to beat both nokia and sony in bringing this phone first to market.... Sadly its gonna hurt them bad... They tried same with announcement of ATIV last year, tried to outdo nokia...

Sammy is playing game of one upmanship... Trying to beat both nokia and sony in bringing this phone first to market.... Sadly its gonna hurt them bad... They tried same with announcement of ATIV last year, tried to outdo nokia...

Samsung tried to be first in everything in something that they are not good at, and camera in phones is one of them (in fact, i dont think there is anyone who will mention Samsung when you bring up the topic of digital cameras). First isnt necessarily the best. Samsung rushed ahead and announced the first windows phone 8 device, and guess what, it's selling worse than HTC 8X, let alone Nokia's Lumia phones.

A bad move by Samsung really. Too much compromise is done just to emphasize the camera part of the device. Really now? And worse, they even incorporated the S4 name! By doing so, they are damaging the reputation of the "Galaxy S" line of products which is usually state-of-the-art and well-thought premium devices by Samsung. So far, Samsung has been releasing good Galaxy S products... until now. This one looks just like an ordinary smartphone slapped with optical zoom camera and xenon flash at the back in a rushed decision and then release it without further balancing some of the elements on the phone side.

You have to be a hardcore Samsung fan to buy this. This one looks ugly, let's face it. This is what happens when you are in a hurry and don't spend time perfecting your products. They think that because people are mad about the Galaxy line, they thought everything they release would sell like hotcakes, hence they no longer spend time making their products beautiful.

Seriously, this one hardly has the qualities of a "Galaxy S" product to begin with.

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